Hacker News Reader

colindeanon Plaintextaccounting_workshop

Author here. Thanks for posting. I've not updated it in a long time, but I'm happy to answer questions.

colindeanon Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

This is not universally true. In at least Pennsylvania, "poor performance" as the reason does not disqualify from unemployment.

colindeanon NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

Pittsburgh has a wireless community network, http://www.pittmesh.net, which is run by Meta Mesh Wireless Communities, https://www.metamesh.org. I'm involved!

MMWC doesn't have its own fiber but does have access to KINBER's PennREN fiber network, a little-known gem in the commonwealth that happens to run down Fifth Ave and a few other main roads in the city. We're working on rolling out access to it. As we're a donations- and grant-funded non-profit, our rollout will be slower than a commercial operation.

Pittsburgh has a lot of fiber running through it, but most of it is commercial backbone fiber. One data center that I know of had 12 ISPs peering with it, and that was in 2009. Only Verizon FiOS has executed a residential rollout in the city, and you can read more about folks opinions on that in /r/pittsburgh.

I've passed this thread to the MMWC executive team for them to add more detail!

colindeanon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2018)

Arcadia.io | Software Engineer | Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Boston, MA, USA | ONSITE/REMOTE | Full time

Arcadia.io is a privately-owned healthcare analytics company founded in 2002 and based in the Boston, Massachusetts area with offices in Burlington, Massachusetts; Rockford, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with dozens of remote employees nationwide.

Phrased succinctly, we use patient records to help doctors tell patients how they can be healthier and how they can get better when they're sick by enabling those doctors to see a patient's record with every doctor they see.

We have a variety of positions available:

* Senior Software Engineer * Software Engineer, Systems Generalist * Software Engineer, Backend Web Development * Software Engineer - Data Warehouse * Software Engineer in Data Pipeline Integration * and more

The main technologies we use are Ruby (on Rails), Scala (Spark, Scalatra web services), Groovy (Gradle and some other in-house stuff + Apache NiFi), and we even have some Rust (CLI app on Windows and Linux!), Python, and JavaScript apps. We're very much about using the right tool for the job, even if that means spending some time learning that tool. We're _really_ big on automation: we're in the middle of scaling our tech to grow our capacity by an order of magnitude within the next two years.

Our [careers link][1] is the best place to read more and apply. Feel free to ask questions via PM, too. I'm based out of Pittsburgh and I'm a hiring manager for some of the positions.

[1]: https://careers-arcadia-io.icims.com/jobs

colindeanon The End of Gratipay

I'll never forget the retreat!

colindeanon The End of Gratipay

We did some really cool stuff, for sure.

colindeanon Zebras all the way down: The engineering challenges of the data path

Or https://twitter.com/codeandsupply, according to https://twitter.com/UptimeConf/status/902169610681712640

colindeanon Zebras all the way down: The engineering challenges of the data path

https://twitter.com/uptimeconf

Videos will probably be out in a few weeks and announced there.

colindeanon Best Wifi Mesh Network Kits

We're working on it at Meta Mesh Wireless Communities, a non-profit company putting together a mesh network in Pittsburgh as an educational and equipment-producing effort. Our AP150 is getting some attention and has been a cool platform for us to ship our mesh configuration.

http://www.metamesh.org <- the org http://www.metamesh.tech <- the tech & store http://www.pittmesh.net <- the network

colindeanon Pinebook ARM Linux Laptop Powered by Allwinner A64 CPU

This must be based on the NexDock: http://nexdock.com/

The pictures of the laptop are exactly the same device I have sitting in my lap right now. The NexDock of course has no computer inside it: it's a keyboard, touchpad, SD reader, USB hub, and display.

colindeanon Samsung Recalls 2.8M Top-Load Washing Machines

I own an affected model. The exchange program is seemingly not worth it. My compensation offer was $295 if I purchased a Samsung replacement, $195 for non-Samsung. I chose the "repair" because those amounts were approximately 25% at best the cost of a suitable replacement. I have several dogs, so I do a lot of laundry daily and need an expensive unit geared toward large families because of it.

colindeanon ITT Technical Institutes Shuts Down

I was an IT instructor at one for two quarters in the late 2000s. AMAA.

colindeanon Show HN: Chalkbot

Nike Chalkbot was a project by Pittsburgh-based Deeplocal: http://www.deeplocal.com/projects/chalkbot.html

colindeanon Hammerspoon – Powerful automation of OS X with Lua

Hello, from under my (lua? )rock! I still use Mjolnir. I kinda liked the separate modules approach...

colindeanon Harvey OS – A Fresh Take on Plan 9

I can't think of Harvey without thinking "Crichton!"

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/farscape/images/b/bd/Har...

colindeanon Mosh: the mobile shell

I use mosh daily and love it. It's great for moving around the office and maintaining a connection - no accidental hups, no real need to use screen or nohup.

My one beef with it is that it effectively defeats my terminal emulator's scroll bar. Need to scroll back the output? Nope. You have to use less or more profusely.

colindeanon The Apple TV Aerial Video Screensavers

Installable through Caskroom via

    brew install Caskroom/cask/aerial

These videos look amazing on just about any screen. I've got a 15" MBP Retina connected to a 34" Dell Ultrawide and I've caught people just _staring_ at the big screen with many of these videos.

colindeanon How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

Go out a county in any direction and the culture leans racist. But in Allegheny County, with a few exceptions, the level of racism seems more-or-less passive, a.k.a. Wendy Bell Racism (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=wendy+bell).

I'm not saying that it's not a problem where it happens, but I guess I have the fortune/privilege of observing it so rarely despite living in an suburban borough that is 29.25% White, 66.51% African American according to the 2010 census. I admit that I don't patronize its lone business district very often.

In the city, though, I don't have incidents in my memory that I can cite as evidence that racism is "huge" in Pittsburgh. Big incidents are in the minds of many, e.g. Jordan Miles incident (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=jordan+miles) and to my knowledge and memory, are the exception, not the rule. Then again, I spend most of my time in the East End, which is pretty segregated.

I do concede the lack of diversity in Pittsburgh's tech scene though. The only quantification I have of it is C&S's meetup attendance, which is approximately 10% people of color on average (women = 20%). The number of PoC attending have been slowly but steadily increasing but the number of women fluctuates. We're working on encouraging both demographics to attend!

colindeanon How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

PIT is still struggling, but it's added lots of nonstops and new destinations.

"We currently fly to 54 nonstop destinations on 13 carriers via 171 daily flights, and we will continue adding new routes."

http://flypittsburgh.com/welcome-to-the-next-chapter

PIT's "AirMall" was a fantastic concept. I grew about an hour north of the airport and we'd go shopping at the airport frequently. 9/11 basically killed it and much of the expansion of the airport. The 2008 Recession didn't help, either. AirMall business did eventually bounce back to pre-2001 levels in the last few years. I'll bet that if the gov't ever relaxed the security theater of the TSA, the mall could be booming again.

colindeanon How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

There are some big things happening in Pittsburgh:

Code & Supply (http://codeandsupply.co) is growing very quickly. It is just more than two years old and has nearly 2,200 members of its Meetup group. It holds 6-10 meetups per month, ranging from language talks to toolkits, WiFi, mental health, design, career management, and more.

C&S is hosting Abstractions (http://abstractions.io), probably the largest ever software conference in Pittsburgh. It's in August and will likely sell out of its 1,500 tickets at the current rate (40% sold as of this writing). We've got big names speaking, like Stallman, Zeldman, Sandi Metz, Scott Hanselman, Mike Montiero, Raffi Krikorian, Mitchell Hashimoto, Joe Armstrong, Larry Wall, Allison Randal, Aaron Patterson, Jono Bacon, Kelsey Hightower, and lots more. The full lineup will be announced in May.

Disclosure: I am an organizer of both.

There are lots of other meetups that are big, too. PGH Python just merged into C&S. The PGH FP meetup is growing quickly, too. Pittsburgh hosted Midwest UX last year and Pittsburgh Web Design Day is a pretty big event.

TL;DR the Pittsburgh software community is booming.

colindeanon How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

Have at it: https://discover.imaginecareers.com/

colindeanon How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

I feel that the non-compete thing is one of the biggest problems that PA technologists face. I'd be willing to put money on a state legislature candidate who would vow to get rid of them.

colindeanon How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

Lots. "$280 million was invested in Pittsburgh technology companies in 2015."

https://www.innovationworks.org/Portals/1/documents/Pittsbur...

Off the top of my head, Duolingo, 4moms, Treatspace, Wombat Security, Redzone Robotics got big $$$. That doc has more that I'm less knowledgeable of.

Exits:

Vivísimo acquired by IBM 2012 (I was a part of this one) M*Modal acquired by One Equity Partners 2012 Carnegie Learning acquired by Apollo Group 2012 BlackLocus acquired by The Home Depot 2012 The ExOne Company IPO 2013 BodyMedia acquired by Jawbone 2013 Mobile Technologies acquired by Facebook 2013 BPL Global acquired by Qualitrol 2013 Shoefitr acquired by Amazon 2015 Giftcards.com acquired by Blackhawk (I think 2013) LightSide Labs acquired by Turnitin 2014 Powered Analytics acquired by Target 2014 Millennium Pharmacy Systems acquired by PharMerica 2014 RedPath Integrated Pathology acquired by PDI 2014 Aesynt acquired by Omnicell 2015 iGate acquired by Capgemini 2015 Blue Belt Technologies acquired by Smith & Nephew 2015 Ottomatika acquired by Delphi 2015

colindeanon How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

> Low cost of living: Sure, it's low compared to SF, but it is increasing at an alarming rate. Just look at how quickly housing prices have been rising the past few years. Maybe this isn't something to worry about - maybe it's just a sign that Pittsburgh is a place people already want to move to.

I find it to be largely opportunistic at this point. A correction of sorts, as the real estate was underpriced significantly in areas that 10 years ago were very rough. Middle class and upper middle class business owners saw opportunity to open storefronts in an area that may have been a little risky, but the caution turned out to be unnecessary. Those areas are booming now.

> I visit Pittsburgh at least once every other month, and most people I meet there, unfortunately, are pretty racist.

I'd be very interested to hear where in the city you are encountering this. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I'm not saying it happens rarely. I know it's not really in the touristy areas, at least AFAIK.

colindeanon How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

Brutal is pretty relative. I grew up about an hour north of Pittsburgh and moved into the city about eight years ago. I find Pittsburgh's weather to be abnormally sane for the area. Pittsburgh doesn't get the extremes that much of a Rust Belt gets. Even 35-50 minutes outside the city gets four or five times the snow. Sure, the temperature gets into the single digits for a couple of weeks (negatives with wind chill, but I've found there's not much wind in a Pittsburgh winter), but most of our summers don't exceed 90˚F. I can heat and cool a 1400 sq ft house for under $200/mo with gas heating and electric A/C, plus a house full of geeky electronics, a house inhabited by people who chronically forget to turn things off.

What's brutal to me? North Dakota. Montana. Maine. Vermont and New Hampshire. Northern New York and its Buffalo area.

colindeanon Unofficial Google Play Music Desktop Client

This is looking good, but Radiant Player is the current king of Google Play Music on OSX.

https://radiant-player.github.io/radiant-player-mac/

    brew install Caskroom/cask/radiant-player

colindeanon Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

Cringely has always been very critical of IBM. I'm unaware of how often his predictions have been right.

Disclosure: IBMer, speaking for myself.

colindeanon Dead Men Write No Code

I dropped 50 lbs 2014-2015. It's worked wonders for my confidence. I didn't really need the boost for dating since I'm in a long term relationship. It did come at a time when I transitioned to a new role within my company and needed a massive boost of confidence to get over imposter syndrome and pioneer my own destiny.

colindeanon 90% of the billion dollar unicorn startups are in trouble

I've always envisioned most tech businesses in general as an elephant standing on a board with a bunch of mice underneath it. The mice keep the elephant moving, but if the mice aren't continuously fed, they slowly die off. When enough mice die, the rest can't support the elephant and it thus squishes them. The elephant is shot shortly thereafter because it stopped moving. The mice that left sometimes come back to feed on the elephant carcass.

colindeanon Netbeez: Network monitoring with Raspberry Pi

Pittsburgh represent!